This page is designed to provide for timely and official fire information about wildland fires across the Pacific Northwest. The information is posted by the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in partnership with Public Information Officers that work for federal, state and local fire agencies and is drawn from official sources within the wildland fire community.

Saturday, August 5, 2017

8/5/2017 Whitewater Fire Update

Public Meeting: A public meeting will be held at 3:00 pm on Sunday, August 6th at Detroit City Hall 160 Detroit Avenue N, Detroit, OR.

Yesterday’s Fire Growth— The fire grew to 5,000 acres yesterday, crossing the upper end of the Breitenbush drainage on the northern flank of the fire.

Location—The Whitewater Fire is burning in the Mount Jefferson Wilderness and adjacent forest lands, approximately 13 miles east of Detroit, Oregon. The Incident Command Post, located at the Hoodoo Ski Resort, is closed to non-fire traffic.

Today’s Operations and Fire Behavior— Fire managers expect another day of active fire behavior, with high potential for spotting across ridgelines on the fire’s northern and southern flanks. To create fuel breaks,equipment will continue to remove brush from roadways and hand crews will dig line to connect these road systems.

Starting today, amphibious “Scooper Planes” will be operating on Detroit Lake to supply water to fires in the area. Portions of the lake will be closed during these operations.

Weather and Smoke Forcast— Warm and dry weather continues today with low humidity and temperatures in the upper 80s on the fire lines today. “The Warm Springs and Madras areas will experience higher concentrations of smoke contributing to moderate air quality conditions,” said Duncan Leao, air resource advisor for the fire.

Road and Trail Closures— The Willamette National Forest has closed all trail access points into Jefferson Park, including an 11-mile stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail.

The following road and trail closures are currently in effect:

●Whitewater Trail #3429 is closed from its origin to the junction with the Pacific Crest Trail #2000.

●Cheat Creek Trail #3441 is closed from its origin to the junction with the Triangulation Trail #3373.

●Triangulation Trail #3373 is closed from its junction with trail #3374 (near Triangulation Peak) to the terminus at Whitewater Trail #3429.

●Crag Trail #3364 from its origin to the terminus at the Triangulation Trail #3373.